&Sons, China Square Central

Who says you must cut a new restaurant some slack? The service here was spectacular. Attentive, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. In mid-meal, I was perusing a menu for fun and a waitress noticed me to check if I needed more food. Kudos to the server in the above photo: she was awesome.

Mixed Cheese Platter ($18)

All the servers and cooks are Italians. So the food is Italian served in small plates to share. Each person should order about 2-3 plates. According to the server, everything is made in-house. Even the charcuterie is cured in-house and pasta made from scratch.

We trio ordered 8 plates and the food ranged from acceptable to good. The least favorite dish–but still acceptable–was pork tuna ($10, pictured above), a shredded pork, styled like a can of tuna. It was a tad dry.

Better than the tuna pork were the calamari ($12, above), cooked just right, with a nice bite but not overly chewy; aspargus, garlic & anchovy sauce ($9), ok but nothing special; prosciutt San Daniele with pickled pears ($12), the appetizing pears perked up the dish; and Kurobuta Pork Neck with Porcini sauce ($15), tender with a nice crisp crust but there was a hint of Maggi Mee seasoning, which was nicely familiar.

Our favorites of the night: The cheese mix board ($18) with 5 selections (from 13 cheeses) was a winner for us: each cheese with distinct hints, like truffles or cherry. Another winner was the paccheri ($15, above), a must-order. The thick pasta was first cooked, then rolled and baked like a cinnamon bun. When you cut open, it was filled with Iberico pork and the aroma of truffle assaulted the senses. Actually, I think another pasta, sea urchin carbonara ($16) looks interesting too, but too bad we were already too full.

Kurobuta Pork Neck with Porcini sauce ($15)

So full that I FORGOT about the essential part of the meal, desserts. ALAMAK. When I walked out of the restaurant, I wanted to go back in and try the desserts. But my other two friends were already gone. The salted caramel strawberry jubilee ($12) sounded good.

An all-round winner, good food, classy decor and great service. We spent $200 for three including a bottle of wine ($75).

sigh, I called my friends immediately when we separated and asked them to come back but they just laughed at me. I’ve been trying to eat clean and apparently, bad habits stick quickly so I forgot desserts.